As Admin and Membership Director, I get to be in charge of all things awards related this year. And this means I've got to experience the awards process from three different perspectives:

Coordinating Entries

I coordinated the entries from the UK into this year's European Awards, which were given out at European Conference in Braunswchweig in June. I let each local chamber know which of their entries were eligible to go forward, the process and deadlines for submitting entries.

JCI UK was recognised as have scored 80% plus in each of the categories we entered. This meant that we got a lot of screen time during the awards, showcasing to Europe what a brilliant National Organising we are and resulting in a lot of cheering and Union Jack waving!

Judging

I was lucky enough to be a judge for the European Awards (in a category that JCI UK had not entered). It was inspiring to read about the different projects being run by other countries around Europe and definitely gave me some ideas for what JCI UK could do going forwards.

Writing Awards

As Local President for JCI London in 2011, I was responsible for submitting the awards that we won in last year's national awards to the European level. Award writing can be time-consuming and frustrating (especially as the information required had changed), however, it is ultimately incredibly rewarding to see what our chamber and members have achieved.

And of course the ultimate reward was when one of our entries won - I am incredibly proud that the amazing Soraya Bowen was awarded "Most Outstanding New Member in Europe". And by the roar that went up when she won, it is clear that so is the rest of UK!

Next up - coordinating entries into the World Awards and organising the National Awards programme for 2012 (which will be given out at the Gala Dinner at our National Convention on board the Titanic in Belfast!).